~ Ministry of Wotanism

A GIANT AMONGST MEN: A TRIBUTE TO ROBERT JAY MATHEWS

He was not a tall man. He stood about 5’7″, yet he was a giant amongst
men. Wide in the shoulders with bulging biceps, Robert J. Mathews was known
as a no-nonsense guy in the community of Metaline Falls, Washington. ThisSelkirk Mountain town employed miners, woodsmen, and blue-collar union men in
season. It was known more for bars and taverns than its churches. Bob would
work his 8-12 hour shift in the Bunker Hill zinc mine and would spend the
remaining daylight hours falling timber on a forty-acre parcel he had
purchased on Boundary Dam Road. Like his ancestors that tamed the West, Bob
was determined to clear and fence a small parcel to raise Scottish Galloway
cattle. In the town, he earned the moniker; Badger Bob; for his hard work
and determination. He cleared and prepped an area for two doublewide
trailers on this land, one for himself and one for his elderly parents.
Without much help from anyone else, he built a chicken coop, a root cellar
and a barn. After pulling up all the stumps and seeding a five acre pasture,
he brought in a bull and three or four cows. Near the creek in the woods,
close to his house, he placed some benches in a mossy grotto-like area with a
small waterfall, so he could sit and relax at the end of the day, enjoying
Nature’s beauty. In the evenings, he would read from his extensive library
until he could barely hold his eyes open. Oftentimes, the book would tumble
to the floor and he’d be found snoring in his easy chair. Then, in the
morning, he’d start his day at the crack of dawn with John Philip Sousa
marching music, or the Black Watch playing reveille on the pipes, blaring on
his phonograph. His breakfast, every single day, 365 days a year, had to
include grilled eggs (slightly running) and a bowl of oatmeal because he had
read somewhere that the Scottish Highlanders would carry oatmeal in their
sporrans when they went to battle and would live off the land supplementing
their diet with pillaged eggs or small game.

In the early 1980’s Bob had created a movement called ‘White American Bastion‘ (W.A.B.) and was active trying to get people to move to his corner
of the Pacific Northwest. He felt that if whites would move out of the urban
cesspools, they would return to their idyllic tribal roots. The bad part was
that jobs were few and far between in this utopia. A recession was going on
in the country at this time. Farms were being lost to foreclosures. The
logging industry was depressed, and many of the mills shut down. The zinc
mine was no longer operating. The union at the cement plant was going on
strike. Unemployment was 20%, or worse, as many jobs in Pend Oreille County
were seasonal.
Yet Bob was undeterred. One day, he invited a number of people he had
met at Aryan Nations Church in Hayden Lake, Idaho, up to his place for a
potluck dinner. After the meal, while the wives and children stayed in the
house, the men moved out to a building Bob and I, and two others, had built
that summer. Bob sat us in a circle of chairs he’d placed in the upstairs
room. In a very serious manner, he explained to us what he perceived to be a
major conspiracy against our race, our families, and our way of life. He
showed us articles pulled from the Spokane newspaper that would prove to us
that our people were under attack. Mostly these were articles on farm
foreclosures with violent endings, or court decisions pushing affirmative
action to the detriment of White communities.
He reminded us of what was said at the 1983 Aryan Nations Congress about
how money was scarce for our Folk. He gave us examples of how people in our
own community were struggling to make ends meet. Less than half the men in
the circle that evening had steady jobs. One man’s family was living in a
dirt floor cabin without running water. He asked us if we could think of
ways to make money. Dan Bowers suggested sponsorship by appealing to wealthy
donors and creating some equitable means of distributing the proceeds. Most
of us viewed this idea as too labor intensive to set up on a short notice for
our immediate needs. Kenneth Loff suggested we bid on forest service trail
cleaning jobs. Someone argued that we would have to put up money to bid on
the contracts as a promise we’d complete the job; then someone suggested
doing robberies. None of us had engaged in criminal activity before and most
of the men were very much against it. Most of the men were Identity Christians and could not justify it by their faith. Most of us agreed that
people worked hard for their money and we didn’t want to rob them of their
hard earned property or savings. It was suggested that money from banks was
insured, but none of us were prepared to take such a drastic step. The
general consensus was that we would work to create jobs in our area and would
make it a point to help one another. Then Bob told us to wait in the circle
while he ran downstairs. In a moment, he came back carrying Jamie Ann Loff,
Ken’s infant daughter. He placed her on a blanket on the floor in the middle
of the circle, lit some candles and dimmed the lights. He told us that he
wanted us to make a pledge to one another; what he said was just as sacred,
if not more so, than a wedding vow. He impressed upon us that this oath was
so unlike any other that, if we wanted, we could leave the room with no hard
feelings. No one moved. There was a moment of silence as all of us stared
at the child in the center of our circle. Bob told us, that the oath we were
about to swear was directed toward all White children, which were represented
this night, by this one child. It was a pledge to defend the children at any
cost. We all raised our right arms as Bob began reading prepared words from
a sheet of paper, in a trembling, yet determined voice. As he read a line,
we would repeat after him. The moment was so moving that I could feel the
energy generated by each one of us fill the room. Tears filled my eyes as I
felt a deep connection to each of the men standing in the circle. Like a
pebble dropped in a pool of still water, I could feel the energy radiating
outward, through space and time, to our brethren not present with us on this
evening. We were pledging to give our life for our folk and would use all
our resources to protect this child and all White children, to defend their
safety and honor. From this moment on, our lives were thoroughly changed.

Ultimately, we did take action, engaging in more than a years worth of
criminal activity to support our cause. Many of the men in the circle that
night were fortunate enough to get a bit of prison time for their
involvement. They would have a chance to re-evaluate and examine where they
went wrong and how to do things better in the future, but not Bob; he gave
his life.

After a two day stand off with scores of government agents, Robert J. Mathews was killed in a fiery blaze; a Viking funeral pyre. When they
located the charred remains of his body the next day, a gun was found melted
into each hand. His Bruders Schweigen medallion was melted onto the Kevlar
vest where his chest had been.
With his passing went his dream of creating his White American Bastion, a
community of families banding together in support of one another in a little
town called Metaline Falls. His ashes were scattered beneath an apple tree
on his property on Boundary Dam Road. Though they were able to destroy his
body, they couldn’t kill his spirit. Wherever people gather to work for the
glory and honor of our Folk, the spirit of Robert J. Mathews is alive and
well, his dream renewed. HailRobert J. Mathews!
– Richard Kemp

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actively in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.– Theodore Roosevelt